Credit Suisse, Blackrock, Close Brothers, McKinsey, UBS in Investments this week
- Credit Suisse has introduced a four-step digital onboarding service for new clients offering a paperless, 15-minute sign-up process. The service is initially aimed at private individuals domiciled in Switzerland, and is available in German, English, French, and Italian
- BlackRock has reported a 9% rise in profit in Q2 2017 as its assets reached £4.35tn. Net income rose to £656m on revenue of nearly £2.3bn
- Close Brothers has issued a pre-close trading update ahead of its 2017 financial year end, showing that its loan book for the year-to-date was up 6.4% year, at £6.8bn. Managed assets were up 9% for the year-to-date, at £8.8bn. Total client assets grew 11% to £11.0bn.
- McKinsey has suggested that robots, AI and other forms of automation could take over almost a third of investment banking jobs within just a few years. The Cognitive Technologies in Capital Markets report concludes that 60% of jobs will face a big impact from AI and robotics while 30% of jobs could be performed entirely via automation
- UBS, Credit Suisse, Pictet and Société Générale are planning to expand their UK wealth management businesses in the UK by hiring extra staff and opening new regional offices, according to the FT
- Hargreaves Lansdown is to acquire £90m of assets from BlackRock. The deal, subject to regulatory approval is expected to complete in October 2017 and will facilitate the transfer of up to 4,300 BlackRock clients to Hargreaves’ Vantage platform free of dealing charges
- Wealth Wizards chief executive, Andrew Firth, has claimed that advice provided by an automated service is less risky than the traditional face-to-face meetings with a financial adviser.
- Klarna has announced that an investment partnership advised by Permira is to acquire a strategic equity stake in the business by acquiring shares from existing shareholders General Atlantic, DST Global and Niklas Adalberth. The transaction is subject to approval from the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority.
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